May 19, 2015

Stream: Passive Smoke - Inhale

One big breath of Passive Smoke’s debut and it tastes just right.

I’m not a smoker, and I never have been, but a lot of my friends are. I’m pretty
passive about it. I mean, I’m not into anyone breathing smoke into my eye
sockets, but most people are polite enough not to do that. If I’m honest, though,
I’ve gotta say that I’m pretty sick of bearing the cold when I’m outside of a
show and the only reason I’m out there is because every
single one of my friends has to roll a cigarette. But it’s
something you’ve got to grit your teeth through when it’s for the bands you
really love and for me, Passive Smoke are worth every bit of that cold wind,
every one of those cigarette butts traced all over the ground, and every ounce of
energy that it takes to drag myself out to a show once and a while.

The debut of Passive Smoke is made up of Eadie, Chiara, Elly, and
Pixie-Marie. Their tape Inhale has jangled its way into my brain cells and gotten
cozy in between my heart strings. Thick guitars and layered drums frame Eadie
– a front woman near shouting, but not quite; almost like a Carrie Brownstein
with wobbly knees – and it’s absolutely humbling. Each song fuzzes into one
another and at its end is when they work together to radiate the warming
feeling that runs through the entirety of the album. It’s a feeling I can’t fully put
my finger on; something I can’t entirely put into words – but whatever it is, it’s
a feeling that just keeps growing on me more and more every single time I let
this tape play through. It’s lined my eardrums and started to
wrap itself around the entirety of my brain – because no matter what day of the
week it is, or whatever time the clock’s ticked over to, these songs are
permanently running through me and the back of my throat can’t help but hum
along. Maybe if I’m lucky the feeling will keep on growing and wrap itself
around every exposed bit of my skin and keep me warm forever. I won’t
even have to bare the cold outside the venue of the next Passive Smoke show.
But until then I guess I’ll just have to bear the goosebumps, because the state
this tape has left me in has my undivided attention – and I sure won’t be missing
a show anytime soon. Inhale sure is a good breath in.

THIS STAFF POST WAS CONTRIBUTED BY:
Madalyn Trewin, a scrawny Australian teenager, who is feeding her obsession with dogs, David Lynch and Daniel Johnston twenty-four hours a day. If not that, she's writing about things she likes and saturating her friends in glitter so she can take photos of them to post onto her blog.